16 | www.PetfoodIndustry.com
Portland Pet Food: human-grade,
homestyle cooking for dogs
This young startup company focuses on high quality and sustainability
to best serve dogs.
LINDSAY BEATON
Portland Pet Food Company (PPFC), a startup founded by
Kate McCarron in 2015, grew from a family's need to feed their
dog the best available options. McCarron's then-14-year-old
Standard Poodle Rosie was unable to eat traditional pet foods
due to a diseased tongue, and concern for her nutritional health
became the basis for PPFC's homestyle-cooked meals and dog
treats. Rosie lived to be 16.5 on her new food, made with locally
sourced (in the Pacific Northwest US), human-grade ingredients
and without supplements, and her legacy lives on today in PPFC's
dog food.
Keying in on quality assurance and
sustainability
Portland Pet Food Founder and President Kate McCarron, here with
her Standard Poodle Winnie and her Lasapoo Tuxedo, founded the
company after another of her Standard Poodles, Rosie, had trouble eating
traditional pet food due to health issues in her old age (14 years). A new
company was born and Rosie lived to be 16.5 years old.
Henry Cromett
"Our meals and treats reflect our commitment to offer the
quality assurance pet parents are looking for in their pet's food
and treats," says McCarron. "For a startup company, our product
research and development is extensive. Our nutritional knowledge and scientific background guided us to create meals and
treats with limited ingredients. We worked with the Oregon
Food Innovation Center to create a line of meals that follow
AAFCO (the Association of American Feed Control Officials)
guidelines while providing nourishment formulated for a dog,
but stop short of additional supplementation. As humans, we do
not add supplements to our meals, nor do we feel that it is necessary for a dog that eats natural, healthy ingredients."
PPFC also considers sustainability to be one of its cornerstones, working with local vendors to decrease the company's
footprint on society. To that end, PPFC uses sustainable packaging for its shelf-stable microwavable pouches.
"Our new, all-natural shelf-stable meal mixers, which
come in a convenient BPA-free, microwavable pouch, are an
eco-friendly industry game changer," says McCarron. "Not
only are they convenient for the consumer, our pouches
generate one-tenth of the CO₂ emissions and consume 25
percent of the energy it takes to create a metal can. They also
October 2017
Industry